- Publius
- DiDDY
- Doc Eldridge
- Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
- Tom Brady
- Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
- Mark Richt
- The Muppet who sang the “Ma-nam-ah-nah” song
- Upshaw Bentley
- Hot Dog Man
- Mike Adams
- Samuel Becket
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Hey! We're not running for mayor either! Where's our press?
Harry Sims gets Loop’d in today’s ABH, as Blake Aued speculates without speculating, with respect to Sims’ not running for mayor. Apparently the field of candidates is so underwhelming to Blake that more news is to be made by talking about who’s not running. We’ll give Blake a few tips, free of charge. Here is a list of people who are officially not running for Mayor.
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11 comments:
I think the ABH just can't stand it that Heidi won't say whether she wants to run for re-election so they're just throwing out names to try to force her hand.
My theory is that Heidi is just hoping that somebody "good" will jump in so she doesn't have to run. The current field of announced candidates is so poor that she may feel that she has no choice but to run. If she runs, she'll win. The question is whether she wants to be Mayor for another four years or whether she feels like she can't walk away from it and leave it to one of the buffoons that have announced.
Just my theory but, I know Heidi well enough to know that she is not enamored with the job and is not impressed by the title or the trappings of the job. For her, it's about service. For these other guys, I think it's about the title and the football tickets.
I've kind of gotten that feeling too. Heaven knows that I've been no fan of Heidi in the past, but she's better by a long shot than Tom "Mushy Middle" Chasteen.
Now, if Andy Rusk proves he's in it to win it, and can raise the money to get his message out (that means walk pieces, as well as direct mail, maybe even some radio; you can't rely on free media to get your name or your message out, especially in this town), I might change my mind.
As far as Heidi goes, I wonder without having a definitive answer. If she runs because she feels like she has to, is that going to carry over into how she campaigns?
Don't count Tom out...if you can be everything to everybody, you should get everybody's vote, right?
Andy would do well to remember the Paul Butchart for Mayor campaign.
Maybe Heidi's campaign could print bumper stickers: "I'll be Mayor, so you won't have to"...
"the Paul Butchart for Mayor campaign"
Ok, kids. History lesson time. Go for it, FP.
Well, I'd be happy to buy Mr. Rusk dinner, if I can get some pork for my district in return...or at least the post of Ambassador to Bogart.
Paul Butchart is an official Local Hero, having had much to do with the origins of the Human Rights Festival and other good works. At the time of Unification, Mr. Butchart tossed his hat in the ring, but never, as far as I could tell, attracted the attention of anyone outside of his core constituency. I don’t know if the dailies even noticed he was running, and I can’t recall if the Observer included him in their reporting, He would have been the natural Flagpole candidate, had they taken anything seriously in those days...
My comment was not meant as an insult, but as a warning for a candidate to make sure that they get recognized, get heard, and get some positive ink in the Athens Daily Juggernaut. Don’t be a fringe candidate, and don’t fail to take it seriously.
Lord knows it would be interesting to have Mr. Rusk as Mayor. I just hope it's possible...
Of all the announced candidates, Rusk would be my choice. Unfortunately, he seems to have begun his campaign by pissing in his own punch bowl. Even if he completely changes his web site, it's too late - everybody who will work for the other candidates already has a copy of it. Beyond using an offensive (to the general public) expletive in the title, his points and positions are more like "whines, bitches, and moans" than any kind of actual platform. He also does not inspire any confidence that he actually knows what the mayor's job is really about.
In spite of all of that, he scares me less than the other guys in the race. He could probably grow into the job but I think he should have started as a serious guy if he had any serious aspirations. Sorry, Andy but, you've got nobody to blame but yourself.
This brings up an interesting point that I was talking about with a friend the other day. If I had to free associate any particular word or phrase with our friend Andy, tops on the list would be "straight talk." That appears to be how he's "branding" himself (because politics is all about marketing), and how he wants to be seen. It's a good differentiation to make.
Problem is, voters are hypocritical sometimes. We love the straight-shooting candidates and they get great buzz and decent media, but for whatever reason, the slick, polished, mushy middle pol always wins. (See Bush v. McCain in 2000; Gore v. Bradley in 2000; Kerry and Dean in 2004, etc).
I'm not sure why that is, actually. One possibility is that is you're actually sincere about not fudging your positions, you don't usually have a lot of patience for the BS of politics, namely calling total strangers and asking them for money. It sucks, but candidates have to fundraise; otherwise, how do you get your message out?
Of course, fundraising wasn't really a problem for Dean or McCain, to use my examples, so maybe it's something else. I'm just riffin'.
By the way, that should be Andy's slogan.
"Rusk: Less Scary Than the Other Candidates."
Yes, but can you get elected in A-CC by shouting "Bullshit" in a crowded polling place?
If there's anywhere you can...
bullshit is neither good public policy nor a winning platform - good fertilizer, though. LOL!
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